Definition of antonyms

1) The development and change of the semantic structure of English words is always a source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary. Polysemy is inherent in the very nature of words and notions, as they always contain a generalization of several traits of the object. Some of these traits are common with other objects. Hence the possibility of identical names for objects possessing common features.

One and the same word may have several meanings. A word that has more than one meaning is called polysemantic.

Polysemy is characteristic of most words in many languages however different they may be. But it is more characteristic of the English vocabulary as compared with Russian, due to the monosyllabic character of English and the predominance of root words. The greater the relative frequency of the word, the greater the number of elements that constitute its semantic structure, i.e. the more polysemantic it is.

Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of the language because in every particular case the situation and the context, i.e. the environment of the word, cancel all the unnecessary meanings and make speech unambiguous. We shall deal in detail with various types of semantic change. The development and change of the semantic structure of a word is always a source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word Every word has a variety of senses and connotations which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates (c ognates in linguistics are words that have a common origin. They may occur within a language, such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from the Proto-Indo-European word *sker-, meaning "to cut". They may also occur across languages, e.g. night and German Nacht as descendants of Proto-Indo-European *nokt-, "night". The word cognate derives from Latin cognatus, from co (with) + gnatus, natus, past participle of nasci "to be born". Literally it means "related by blood, having a common ancestor, or related by an analogous nature, character, or function") across space and time have very different meanings. Semantic change is one of three major processes to find a designation for a concept. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology and semantics. An example of a recent semantic change is of the word mouse; with the advent of computer technology, the word for the rodent has been used as a referent for the input device.

All the types of semantic change depend on some comparison between the earlier (whether extinct or still in use) and the new meaning of the given word. M. Breal was the first to emphasize the fact that in passing from general usage into some special sphere of communication a word as a rule undergoes some sort of specialization of its meaning. When the meaning is specialized, the word can name fewer objects, i.e. have fewer referents. At the same the content of the notion is being enriched, as it includes a greater number of relevant features by which the notion is characterized. Or as St. Ulmann puts it: “The word is now applicable to more things but tells us less about them”.

Classification of semantic change: specification (or narrowing of the meaning), generalization, metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, litotes, irony, euphemism (See more about metaphor and metonymy in Antrushina Chapter 7).

Hyperbole (from Greek huperballo- “exceed”) is an exaggerated statement not meant to be understood literally but expressing an intensely emotional attitude of the speaker to what he is speaking about. The emotional tone is due to the illogical character in which the direct denotative and the contextual emotional meanings are combined. Example:

When people say: “I’ve told you fifty times”,

They mean to scold and very often do (Byron).

Lytotes – is the reverse figure (from Greek litos – “plain”, “meager”) or understatement. It might be defined as expressing the affirmative by the negation of its contrary: e.g. not bad or not half bad for “good”, not small for “great”, no coward for “brave” and so on. The purpose of understatement is not to deceive but to produce a stronger impression on the hearer.

Irony – this term is taken from rhetoric, i.e. expression of one’ meaning by words of opposite meaning, especially a simulated adoption of the opposite point of view for the purpose of ridicule. One of the meanings of the adjective nice is “bad”, “unsatisfactory”, it is marked of f as ironical and illustrated by the example: You’ve got us into a nice mess! The same may be said about the adjective pretty: A pretty mess you’ve maid of it!

Euphemism (Greek euphemismos from eu “well” and pheme “speak”) is the substitution of words of mild or vague connotations for expressions rough, unpleasant or for some other reasons unmentionable.

Causes of semantic change. They may be grouped under two main headings, linguistic and extra linguistic ones. The first group deals with changes due to the constant interdependence of vocabulary units in language and speech, such as differentiation between synonyms, changes taking place in connection with the ellipsis (when the qualifying words of a frequent phrase may be omitted: sale comes to be used instead of cut-price sale) and with fixed contexts, changes resulting from ambiguity in certain contexts, and some other cases.

The extra linguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the language: they are observed in the changes of meaning resulting from the development of the notion expressed and the thing named and by the appearance of new notions and things. In other words, extra linguistic causes of semantic change are connected with the development of the human mind as it moulds reality to conform to its needs.

2) Homonymy. Many words, especially characterized by a high frequency rating, are not connected with meaning by one-to-one relationship. On the contrary, one symbol as a rule serves to render several different meanings. The phenomenon may be said to be the reverse of synonymy where several symbols correspond to one meaning.

Two or more words, identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek (homos – “similar” and onoma – “name”) and thus expresses the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning.

It is the duty of lexicographers to define the boundaries of each word, i.e. to differentiate homonyms and to unite variants deciding in each case whether the different meaning belong o the same polysemantic word or whether there are grounds to treat them as two or more separate words identical in form.

Careful analyses of the relevant literature (cf. Šipka 1991) evidenced nine central problems in the research of homonymy, as follows: 1. definition of homonymy. 2. homonymy vs. polysemy. 3. lexical homonymy vs. homonymy at other levels. 4. classification of homonymy. 5. causes of homonymy. 6. differentiation of the homonymic lexemes in text. 7. use of homonymy within the lexicon. 8. language reactions to homonymic conflict. In this paper we will restrict our discussion to just one of the above problems - the classification of homonymy.

Homonyms are words which have the same spelling and pronunciation as each other but different meanings and origins. The sources of homonyms: 1) homonymy through convergent sound development, when two or three words of different origin accidentally coincide in sound; 2) homonymy developed form polysemy through divergent sense development. Both may be combined with loss of endings and other morphological processes.

Homophones are words which have the same pronunciation as each other but different spellings and meanings: buy – by, knight –night, steel – steal, write –right and so on.

Homophones, are words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. They are usually spelled differently: